Friendship from Fire
by Shinigami Miroku
Summary: Roy has to leave, and Ike is being an ass about it. Can they patch things up before Roy leaves, or will the start of the third tournament be marred by negative feelings? One-shot. No pairings except IkexLethe


Friendship from Fire

A Smash Bros. Fanfiction

by: Dark Daisuke

"WHAT!? Why are you doing this to me!?" Roy yelled, near tears.

"Because it's disgusting, and I want to be in Brawl," Ike responded, waving pictures just out of Roy's reach.

"But... but that's not fair! I have a lot of fans who are expecting me to be in Brawl! Besides, who are you to say what I can or cannot do in my love life!?" Roy said as he kept jumping for the pictures.

All Ike had to do was hold Roy back by his head. "Really, Roy... you should be ashamed of yourself. Doing your cousin AND a dragon? It's a surprise your people haven't revolted yet. It's a good thing your father routed and destroyed that 'Black Fang' assassin organization before you were born; you'd certainly be targeted for such excess. Besides, I can say all that because **I** would never do my sister."

Roy was getting mad by the second. "Yeah, you'd rather do that beast-girl... you're grosser than I am!"

"At least she's still in the mammalian group, Roy. And, she's twice the woman anyone in your harem could ever be, but I suppose that's to be expected from a boy's taste," Ike retorted as he shoved Roy aside, sending him into Marth's clothing trunk.

The thump brought the betrayed prince out of his books and let him lay his bored and annoyed eyes on the two bickering lordlings. "You know, the both of you are acting like such children. If you have a difference, you should settle it in a more refined style."

Ike and Roy looked at Marth with a dubious expression, before the same thought popped up in their heads. "SMASH!" they both exclaimed.

"I'll go ask the Master Hand for permission to use the Final Destination level; you can decide the terms of the match!" Roy yelled as he ran off, with Ike blinking once, then looking at Marth.

"Is Roy always this energetic?"

Marth kept the same look on his face as he returned to his book, _Utopia_. "I've learned to tune him out."

Ike grimaced. "... Maybe this isn't such a good idea... I should've charged Matthew more for those photos."

The next day, after spending the morning trying to convince Master Hand that Ike had been cheating, Roy had no choice but to return to Pherae as a broken and defeated lordling. "Heh... at least I have a sexy-ass wife and a bevy of hot ladies waiting for my return. What do you have, Ike? Some beast-whore and a bunch of whiny subordinates? You can keep my place..." Roy mumbled as he packed his clothing trunk.

Marth hid a smile from his young friend as he polished the Falchion. "Roy, calm yourself. You aren't the best swordsman, but at least you've been able to best Link and his younger incarnate. Since both are heroes in their own realm, that has to count for something, right?"

"Sorry, Marth, but that won't work. EVERYONE and his grandfather can beat that pansy. Even those two puffballs can beat Link, past or present. Dammit, Marth, I don't want to end up like Mewtwo. Poor guy nearly vaporized the whole mansion when he found out that he couldn't participate anymore," Roy mumbled sullenly as he continued to pack.

Marth sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "True; that was a tough fight. You could have tried to take it a bit more easily, like Pichu. Of course, I think it's content no matter what the circumstances. Really, Roy, you should be more like Pichu. You'll die an early death if you stress too much."

"I know... I just don't like the idea of being replaced by some muscle-bound moron who is overrated by pretty much every fan of his game. I mean, sure, he can solo his game because of his broken stats and that damned Aether skill, but that's what makes me so mad! Neither of us got those sorts of things in our games!" Roy retorted, getting red in the face again.

Marth looked thoughtful for a second. "Well, I have the highest popularity of the three of us because I was the first lord, and you have your harem. Ike doesn't get that, so he needs something, don't you think? It might not be a fair trade-off, but consider this: his personality drove almost every single potential mate away, so he needs something to balance that out. That's probably what made the beast-girl attracted to him, his stand-alone personality, so at least he has someone. I don't even have my sister anymore, and my kingdom was demolished, so the only thing I have going for me is my sword.

"You have both a harem and the Sword of Seals, as well as being the head of the Lycian League. Heck, your father saved your world from the return of the dragons, and then you go and defeat your world's greatest military power in order to stop a demonic dragon from destroying your world. That certainly has to count for something, right?" Surprised at how much he'd said, Marth sighed and returned to polishing his sword.

Roy was silent for what seemed to Marth as an eternity; with Roy, even five seconds of silence was unlikely, and half a minute was a miracle. As it was, it took ten minutes for Roy to finish thinking about everything. "You're right, Marth... I've acted like a total idiot. I should go apologize to Ike about everything I said..." Roy stood up and, with a determined look on his face, left to seek out the powerful swordsman, leaving Marth to give a rare smirk.

The other Brawlers were busy with either practicing for the opening ceremonial tournament or finishing preparations to the mansion, whether it be stocking up on food (Zelda and Mr. Game & Watch were in charge of this) or working on room expansions (this was the Ice Climber's specialty, though they often also got help from Kirby, as well as Mewtwo, who was allowed to stay on until repairs were complete, as part of his penance), among other things. Thus, it was relatively quiet on the first floor, mostly in the large living room and the larger play room. Ike was in the second room, shooting pool by himself; he was likely on break from working the carpentry with the Ice Climbers. This was his normal routine, so it was easy for Roy to find him.

"Hey, Ike! Mind if I join you?" Roy greeted Ike cheerfully, hoping to break the ice.

"No," Ike responded tersely, not wanting to even hear Roy's annoying voice.

"..." Roy looked away dejectedly for a second, then approached Ike slowly. "... Look, I'm sorry for the things I said. I have nothing against you, honestly. It's just that, I really like it here, though, so when I found out that I was off the roster..."

"You felt the need to place the blame on someone else, right?" Ike turned around, giving Roy a stern look. "You really should think things through better... though, I'll admit I was pretty mean back there, too. What with the blackmail and all... here." He tossed the pictures at Roy, who caught them. "I never needed them in the first place, since the Master Hand is the one who decides all these things... I just wanted to tease you a little bit; unfortunately for me, it was the wrong way to do it. I... apologize, as well." Ike held out his hand. "And I accept your apology, if you'll accept mine."

Roy smiled again, grasping Ike's hand in a firm shake. "Of course I do! Thank you!"

Ike gave a hint of a smile in response. "Hmph... not a bad grip, boy. You might become a respectable lord after all." He released Roy's hand and tossed him a pool stick. "You've got some time before you have to go, right? How about a round or two?"

Roy grinned like a madman as he nodded. "Just don't go crying to Marth when you lose!"

"Hmph... as if; you'll be the one crying to him when we're through," Ike replied easily as they set the game up.

Mario, Peach, Link, Zelda, Marth, Samus, and the rest of the Brawlers watched as the pool game ran into the early morning hours, the two swordsmen trying to best each other at pool, though it was clear that they were both of equal skill. Eventually, the only two that stayed up to continue watching were Marth and Mario.

"Heh... I'm surprised neither one of them has given up, considering that they played right through lunch AND dinner," Marth said as the two of them watched. "Any bets on who wins?"

"Nope... none here, though I wish they would-a stop soon; I'm-a getting tired," Mario replied as he yawned, not making a move to go to bed.

"Agreed." And so, the struggle continued...

Roy and Ike finally collapsed from sheer exhaustion; they were both at fourty wins and fourty losses, and neither could win two in a row. Marth and Mario had long since gone to bed, so only Ganondorf saw the two of them drooling on the pool table, which he decided to take pictures of. "Heh... this is going to be so much fun. Even more so than Link getting a wedgie from Malon after missing their dinner-date. That, plus beating him to a pulp that night... oh man, revenge is so sweet, it's almost sickening." The King of Evil chuckled as he slipped out, putting the camera away and walking off to chat it up with Bowser.

Ike was the first to wake up and, after wiping away his spit, he woke up Roy. "Wake up, idiot... what if one of the others finds the two of us snoozing away next to the pool table? We'll be scrubbing toilets for a week."

Roy shot up at the mention of 'toilets.' "NOOOOO!!! No more toilets!" He sighed in relief after he realized that Ike was just trying to wake him up. "Dude, don't scare me like that... I remember the last time I had to do that; trust me, you don't want to wash a toilet that Merlinus has been in..." He sobbed at the memory.

Ike just chuckled and hefted Roy to his feet. "Well, whatever... you played well. Not too bad, at all."

Roy grinned sheepishly. "Thanks, Ike. Well, I need to finish packing... Here's my e-mail address." He gave a piece of paper to Ike, who gave one in return.

"Thanks. Here's mine... I'll have to thank Mario for getting those power plants set up in our worlds so we could communicate via e-mail."

Roy nodded. "Agreed. Well, I have to get packing... see you later, Ike."

Ike nodded back. "Yup, see you later."

The opening ceremonies went exceedingly well; the stadium was packed tight and the airwaves were shattering records. No Brawler could say that the night was a disappointment, what with so many fans cheering for each of them; Mewtwo, Pichu, and Roy especially enjoyed themselves, since this was their last night there, and managed to rack up multiple wins. The after-ceremony party lasted all night, and with such a rousing success, everyone was so excited that no one could even think about sleeping.

Unfortunately, the exuberance did not last due to the fact that this day was also the departure day for several characters. Mewtwo paid his respects to his fellow Brawlers by setting off psychic-fireworks in the sky as a send-off for the group. Roy had won the respect of his fellow Brawlers the day before by racking up the most KOs among the leaving group. Pichu was still popular, at least with the women of the group, and was even now being cuddled by them (and enjoying every minute of it).

Finally, though, it was time for them to go. The last on the bus was Roy; he was busy staring up at his new best friend, tearing up at the thought of not seeing him anymore. Ike, however, was actually smiling, which was something that confused Roy. "Ike, you're scaring me... why are you smiling?"

Ike crossed his arms. "Why not? You actually managed to best me in the opening ceremony tournament. You've definitely earned my respect, Roy. Don't worry so much; we'll still keep in touch, okay?" He held out his hand.

Roy grasped Ike's hand, the emotional tears disappearing. "Of course! I'll shoot you an email when I get back, okay?"

Ike nodded in response. "Heh... your grip has gotten stronger. Good to see... don't let your harem soften you, or I'll hop the first bus to Pherae to whip you back into shape." Roy grinned sheepishly and nodded.

With their goodbyes said, the bus finally left for the Kanto and Johto regions, since Pichu and Mewtwo lived near each other. Ike simply stood at the entrance to the mansion, smirking as he realized what Roy actually did for him. He then shoved Bowser aside, sending the hulking turtle into the wall as he walked to his room and sent an email to Lethe, profusely apologizing for the argument they'd had before he left. With that sent, he sent another email to his friends in his father's group, 'Greil's Mercenaries,' posting it on their members-only forum. With that done, he walked off to train; Pherae was over two days away by bus, so he had a little time to kill.

**AN: I've had this one for awhile, and while it's probably not the best it could be, I'm satisfied with it. That being said, I'd love to get some reviews in order to improve my style. Don't hold back on what you want to say, but outright flames and spamming will be dealt with accordingly. :3**


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